Flower Shield, 1975 by Françoise Gilot

Flower Shield, 1975 by Françoise Gilot

Françoise Gilot (b.1921, France) Even at the young age of 21, Françoise Gilot was one of the most respected artists of the emerging School of Paris, a movement struggling for recognition during the years of The Occupation.

In 1943, during the time of her first important exhibition in Paris, Françoise met Pablo Picasso, an artist 40 years her senior. In 1946, Gilot and Picasso began a decade-long relationship and Françoise became both a witness and a participant in one of the last great periods of the modern art movement in Europe. Their circle included poets, philosophers, writers, and many of the legends of the art world, such as Braque, Chagall, Cocteau, and Matisse.

After nearly 70 years as an artist, Françoise Gilot continues to conquer canvas with her own language of form and color. Her work, done in a variety of media, holds a vital place in the international art world. Gilot is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Musée Picasso in Antibes, Musée de Tel Aviv in Israel, the Women's Museum in Washington D.C., and Bibliothèque Nationale and Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris. In 1990 she received the Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur, for her work as a painter, writer and feminist. In 2010 she was made an Officer of the Legion d’Honneur, the French government’s highest honor of the arts.